Fossil hunts and events 2017

April

Sunday 9th, Overstrand Norfolk

Overstrand is a foreshore collecting location. Chalk is exposed during low tide, especially during scouring conditions or winter/spring months. The chalk is highly fossiliferous, yielding many echinoids, sponges and molluscs

Penarth is the most popular location in Wales for fossil collectors. This is down to both the site being very rich in fossils, together being a major built up area. This site can be over collected but you still should come home with some finds.

May

Sunday 7th, Hill Dale Quarry Derbyshire

This is an extremely large, open disused quarry, which is rich in fossils. It is one of the best locations in Derbyshire, being easy to access. You could spend days here, finding superb fossils. The quarry is so large that it is even possible to get lost. Several smaller quarries are linked to the main quarry, which has three levels.

June

Sandstone from the early Cretaceous. The cliffs here are unstable, yet provide the collector

with much fallen material, with fossils from a freshwater lake or lagoon and foreshore that

once dominated the landscape. Sands and silt were transported by rivers and streams, to form the lake bed Dinosaur remains are possible here, along with footprint casts and the remains of plants, especially the horsetail Equisetites, freshwater bivalves and fish.

One of the best location in Devon for finding fossils, in particular, echinoids, ammonites, fish and brachiopods. You just never know what you may find. They can be found in the Middle and Lower Chalk, and in the Upper Greensand.

July

Sunday 2nd, Kings Dyke Cambridgeshire

A great Oxford Clay fossil hunt perfect for all the family situated inside a beautiful nature reserve. We will be hunting for ammonites, belemnites, marine reptile remains and shells from Jurassic 165MYA. Plenty to find and always the unexpected!Please be aware that there is also a working quarry on this site, of which we DO NOT have access to and UKAFH ask all members to say together.

Ringstead Bay is a wonderful location, with rocks and fossils from the Corallian, Kimmeridge Clay, Purbeck Beds, Portland Beds (and at the White Nothe headland, from the Upper Greensand and Chalk) all in one place!

September

Sat 2nd, Ramsholt Suffolk

A UKAFH hunt at an estuary location, this time, with fossils to be found from the London Clay, Red Crag and Coralline formations. Expect to find shark teeth, crabs, lobsters, fish remains, fruits, shells, corals and echinoids.

A Jurassic Heritage Coast hunt for ammonites, belemnites, crinoids, reptile remains, brachiopods, bivalves and other fossils from the famous Green Ammonite Beds when collecting conditions are just right.

This highly fossiliferous site, especially on the foreshore near Copt Point, is composed of

rocks from the Lower Cretaceous; Gault Clay and Lower Greensand. The rocks are of the Middle Albian stage, at Folkestone being approximately 106 million years old. At the base of the Gault Clay cliffs is the Lower Greensand formation. Boulders from this are strewn over the foreshore, making it hard walking in some sections.

December

Sun 10th, Staithes Yorkshire

Ammonites are quite common at Staithes and they are also easy to prepare. In addition, you do not need to walk far to find them. They can be found in nodules along the foreshore or within ledges ready to be picked out.